The Consequences of Alcohol and Depression

Chapter 5: Discussions

Hermione stared at her doctor in shock. "P-pregnant?" she asked warily. It just couldn't be true!

"Yes, pregnant," Dr. Gold replied with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked.

"I'm positive," she said. (A/N- only fools are positive! Hee hee, Fern Gully!)

Hermione gripped the edge of the table for a moment. She couldn't believe it! Pregnant! This was not good. "How far along am I?"

"Well, I can't tell you that. You'll need to go see an Obstetrician. I can recommend one, however," the doctor told her. "Dr. Parker, she's a good friend of mine."

"Okay, thank you," Hermione replied, closing her eyes.

"I take it this isn't a welcomed surprise."

"Not at all," she said, shaking her head sadly. Dr. Gold patted her arm sympathetically.

"Well, there are always ways to take care of this," Dr. Gold began, but Hermione cut her off.

"I couldn't," she replied. The doctor nodded knowingly.

"I know what you mean," she said. "I'll go get Dr. Parker's card for you." Hermione nodded, biting her lip. She wasn't ready for a baby. Money wouldn't be a problem, as her job was very well paying, but this was going to be so hard on her. The only two possibilities for the father were Jeremy and Percy, although neither seemed like a good idea.

Jeremy wouldn't make a good father. He wasn't attentive, he wasn't good with children, and he had quite a temper. He couldn't be counted on for help with raising it, either. Hermione knew Percy was rather levelheaded, but he wasn't exactly idea, either. He was one of her closest friends, not to mention how the Weasleys would react. Ever since Hermione had been a teenager, she had been accepted as an extra part of the family. If Percy were the father, he could probably be counted on to be there for Hermione and the baby, but it would be quite awkward for everyone.

Hermione couldn't have an abortion. She just couldn't do that. And she knew that if she carried the baby for nine months, she wouldn't be able to put it up for adoption. She would have to raise the baby and take care of it, whether or not she would get support from the father.

"Here you are," Dr. Gold said as she re-entered the room, holding a small card. "She'll take good care of you. And tell her I recommended her, you'll get a bit of a discount."

"Okay, thank you doctor," she said.

"Chin up," the doctor replied, "I'm sure it'll all work out for you."

"Thanks," Hermione replied, shaking the doctor's hand and going to the cashier to settle her bill.

******

Hermione hadn't told anyone about the pregnancy a few days later. She wanted to be able to tell the father before anyone else. She had an appointment with the obstetrician, Dr. Parker, at noon, and she was going to go on her lunch break.

When twelve drew near, she buzzed Chelsea. "Chelsea, I'm going to the doctor now."

"Alright, Miss Granger," Chelsea replied. "Will you be back in today?"

"Probably, but I'll owl if I'm not going to come back. Hold all my messages today, regardless."

"Yes, ma'am," the secretary replied, closing their connection. Hermione quickly Apparated to the obstetrician's office, filling out the required paperwork. When she finished, she was called back by a kind older lady, who took her information down.

"Alright, Miss Granger, if you'll wait in here and change into this," the nurse asked, handing her an examination robe. Hermione quickly exchanged her clothes for the paper gown, sinking down into the cushy exam table. It was warm, not cold, so it was obviously charmed.

Hermione looked at the rather pink surroundings of the room, a slight grin on her face. It certainly was colored. Everything in the room was either pink, rose, mauve, salmon, or red. There were several bouquets of flowers situated around the room, at least one bunch on every surface.

The door opened a few minutes later. "Hello, Miss Granger, I´m Amelia Parker." A short, brunette witch said. She was in her mid-thirties, and had a nice smile. She looked a bit like what Hermione imagined Mrs. Weasley to have looked at that age, but with brown hair.

"Hi," Hermione replied, shaking her hand. "Just Hermione, though, if you don't mind."

"Well, you just call me Amelia," the doctor replied.

"Okay, thank you," Hermione said. "I, um, I guess you know why I'm here."

"I have a good idea," Amelia joked good-naturedly. "Dr. Gold sent me an owl. Now, I think we'll just do a basic examination today, figure out how far along you are, if the baby is healthy."

"Alright, now just sit back and we'll get the exam going."

******

Hermione left the office an hour and a half later. The first thing, and most important to her, that the doctor had told her was that the baby was fine.

The second point was how far along she was. After Amelia had examined her thoroughly, using plenty of spells Hermione had never even heard of. She had pronounced the approximate time as a bit over two months, which meant that the father was Percy.

He was going to be devastated. Hermione had thought about it briefly, but she never thought that even in their drunken states that she and Percy wouldn't have used any kind of protection. She had sent an owl from the obstetrician's office to Chelsea, telling her that she wouldn't be in for the rest of the day. Hermione just felt like being alone.

As she opened the front door to her flat, she silently poked her head in. Luckily, she didn't see Ginny anywhere. 'She's still at work,' Hermione mused silently. She walked slowly to her bedroom, sitting down at her desk to work on a note to Percy. She didn't want to tip him off about the pregnancy, as she figured it was the kind of thing you just don't tell people about in a letter. After seven attempted tries, she liked the final result.

Not exactly personal, but it would have to do. She tied it to the leg of her eagle owl, Gwenoviere, or Gwen (A/N- gotta love inserting your own name in the story, even if it is an owl!) for short. She had bought her after Crookshanks had died.

"Gwen, could you get this to Percy quickly?" she asked as she carried her to window. Gwen hooted happily, nipping at her fingertips. The owl soared out of the open window, flying towards the Ministry. Hopefully she could catch Percy before he left work.

As soon as the owl was out of sight, Hermione set her alarm and lay down on her bed for a short nap. This was going to take a lot out of her.

******

Hermione took a quick shower when her alarm went off, fixing her damp hair into a braid. She threw on a basic black robe over a skirt and nice blouse, opting to make a bit of an effort whether it was Percy or not.

As soon as she was sure she looked alright, she Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. She spotted Percy sitting a table near the back, sipping from a small glass. Checking her watch, she realized she was five minutes late.

"Sorry I'm late," she said sheepishly as she sat down beside him.

"Oh, no problem," he replied, shrugging. "What did you need to talk about?"

"Um, why don't we eat something first?" she suggested nervously. She wanted to just talk to him normally before she shocked him with the news that would undoubtedly change his life.

"Alright, then," he said, looking through the menu in front of him. As Hermione scanned the pages, several things that she normally would love gave her a fit of nausea. She finally selected tea and toast. Not much of a dinner, but it was the only thing that didn't make her sick.

"So, um, did you have a good day?" she asked, drumming her fingernails on the table-top.

"It was pretty boring," he replied with a half grin. "I had to deal with this witch that had enchanted a Muggle vacuum cleaner. That was a pain."

"Sounds like it," Hermione said with a small laugh. Before long, their food came, and Hermione contemplated the best way to tell him. She decided to wait just a bit longer, for the right moment to come along.

An opportunity presented itself as they were finishing their dinner. A pause came up in the conversation. "Um, Percy, about what I needed to discuss with you," she said.

"Yes?" he asked. Hermione wouldn't meet his eyes, so he lifted her chin with one finger. "What is it, Hermione?" he asked, looking into her eyes.

Hermione took a deep breath. "Well, Percy, you know that night when we... um, well, you know."

"Yeah," he said, raising an eyebrow. In the dim light, Hermione could see that a blush had crept up on his cheeks at the mentioning of that night. They had reached an unspoken agreement to not talk about it after the conversation they had had afterwards.

"Well, it has been brought to my attention by recent events that we, uh, we didn't use any kind of, well, protection."

Percy stared at her for a few moments. "What are you trying to say?" he asked nervously, pulling his hand away from her face.

"Percy, I'm pregnant," she said. Percy's jaw dropped, his mouth opening and closing several times as he grasped for something to say. Hermione would have laughed at his face, which looked uncannily like a fish, had the situation not been quite as serious.

"Pregnant?" he asked quietly. She silently nodded, looking down at the table. "Oh, wow, this is..."

"Horrible, I know," she replied, feeling tears forming in her eyes. Hermione hadn't cried at all yet, but she could feel herself breaking down.

"No, it's not horrible. Quite unexpected, but not horrible." Hermione looked up at him quickly.

"You really don't think so?" she asked hopefully. If Percy didn't think it was horrible, then maybe he wouldn't be opposed to her keeping the baby. Maybe he would even want to have an active role as a father.

"No, not horrible," he said firmly, taking her hand. "What, um, do you want to do about it? You don't want to get rid of it, do you?"

"Of course not!" she cried, appalled that he could think such a thing. Several people looked in their direction, so she lowered her voice. "I could never do that."

"I wouldn't want you to," he said earnestly. "And believe me, I want to be in its life. I'm gonna do everything I can to take care of it."

"Thank you," Hermione said, tears falling down her face. "I just don't know what we're going to do."

With that, Percy put his arms around Hermione. "We'll take care of it. Don't worry."

Hermione stopped crying after a bit, and she sat back in her chair. "So," Percy said, "Have you thought about this very much?"

"A little," Hermione replied. "Um, if you wouldn't mind, I'd really rather not talk about it right now."

"That's fine," he said, nodding. "When do you want to tell everyone? I mean, I doubt we'd ever be able to keep it a secret."

"Oh," she said, biting her lip. She had thought about that part, but not for very long as the idea had just worried her. "Well, I suppose we should try to tell everyone at once. It would probably be easier. I just don't know how my parents are going to take this."

Percy gulped. "Let's get it over with soon, alright?"

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Do you want to meet to talk tomorrow?"

"Sure," he said, "Why don't you come over to my place after work?"

"Alright," she said, digging in her purse. She threw a couple of galleons on the table to cover her portion of the bill.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Percy said, "I've got it."

"Thanks, Perce," she said, giving him a small smile as she replaced the coins in her purse. With that, she Disapparated straight to her bedroom. She'd deal with Ginny in the morning.

******

When Hermione got off of work the next day, she headed out of her office. "I'll see you tomorrow, Chelsea," she said, lost in her thoughts.

"Oh, but there's someone here to see you," Chelsea said, snapping Hermione from her thoughts. She looked up to see Percy sitting in a chair.

"Hi," she said, a bit surprised.

"I thought I'd wait for you," he said, standing up.

"Alright, then," she replied, turning back to her secretary. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye," Chelsea replied, looking at Percy appreciatively. Hermione bit back a laugh.

After she and Percy had Apparated to his flat, she asked, "How long were you waiting?"

"Well, I didn't know exactly when you got off, so I got there about a half hour ago."

"Thanks," she said, raising an eyebrow. She'd had no idea that he'd been there, or else she would have told Chelsea to let him in to her office. Percy quickly unlocked his door, letting her inside. Hermione sat down on the sofa, watching Percy as he rushed around the flat, lighting a fire in the grate and collecting his mail.

"Would you like something to drink? Water?" he asked.

"Oh, sure, thanks," she replied. Percy walked into his kitchen, returning with two tall glasses of ice water after a moment. He sat down beside her and handed her the drink, sipping it thoughtfully.

After a moment, he asked, "So, you've been to see the doctor, then?"

"Yeah," she replied. "Yesterday. The baby is healthy, but it's too early to tell the sex."

"Okay," Percy said, nodding, "Do you have another appointment?"

"Yes, in three weeks," she said.

"Can I come with you?"

Hermione looked at him for a moment, shocked. Even though he had said he wanted to be involved in the baby's life, she didn't figure that he wanted to be that involved!

"Um, yeah, I'd like that," she said, cocking her head to the side.

"What?" he asked curiously.

"I just didn't think you'd want to do all of that," Hermione said, shrugging.

"Of course I want to," Percy said, "It's my baby too, after all. I want to do all I can for it." Hermione smiled at him. He really was going to be responsible in this.

"So, when should we go about telling our families?" she asked.

"Well, how about if we tell mine this weekend?" he suggested, chewing on the inside of his lip. Two days before, Bill had announced that he had gotten engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Fleur Delacour. The Weasleys were throwing them a party on Saturday night.

"Alright," Hermione said, "And we can tell my parents Friday, then."

"Sounds good, I guess," Percy said, looking decidedly more nervous than he sounded.